


Infernal Contract

by Mertiya



Series: Story Circle [28]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: A lease is not a sale kids, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Contract Law, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Read the Fine Print
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 17:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14289771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: Liliana really should have read the fine print.  Jace makes it a point to explain why.





	Infernal Contract

**Author's Note:**

> Blame my husband, who's studying to be an accountant, for this one. It's really just a minific, though the theory behind Liliana's contract in it is something I wouldn't be surprised to see come to fruition.

The galley of the Weatherlight was crowded and noisy. Gideon watched Jace, who was practically inhaling a portion of soup, drooping slightly, and looking generally exhausted. He had appeared several feet above the deck a few hours ago, told them, “Sorry, amnesia issues again,” and promptly gone to sleep. Now he had tottered down and asked for food, promising Gideon he would give a more complete description when he was feeling a little better. Curious and concerned though he was, Gideon knew there was no point in trying to hurry him. Whatever had happened, Jace looked simultaneously better than Gideon had ever seen him—a new intensity, a new spring in his step—and also more exhausted and wrecked.

            “I cannot wait to kill that demon,” the two of them heard, rising over the crowd. Liliana’s voice. Jace winced slightly—one thing he had made extremely clear was that he did not want to deal with Liliana at all, and Gideon was not inclined to force him. Whether or not the enchantress might be trying to make up for past misdeeds had nothing to do with whether anyone who had been previously hurt by her needed to have anything to do with her whatsoever, and the hints about her involvement with Jace had been particularly—discomforting. So Gideon was sitting with Jace, and Liliana and Chandra were on the other side of the room. “I just cannot wait,” Liliana’s voice said clearly, “to call my soul my own again. Once I get rid of this lease—”

            Gideon nearly wound his neck backwards with the suddenness of his turn; next to him, Jace’s head had snapped to the side as well. “ _Lease?_ ” both of them said. Gideon got up. Jace made an explosive noise and then followed.

            “You _leased_ your soul?” Jace demanded without preamble as they fetched up at the other table.

            Liliana blinked up at him. “Um,” she said, clearly taken aback. “You knew that.”

            “No, no, no.” Jace shook his head. “No, you told me you _sold_ your soul.”

            She stared, clearly uncomprehending. “Leased, sold, what’s the difference?”

            “Oh, you have got to be _fucking_ kidding me!” Jace threw his hands into the air and stalked out of the room.

            Gideon, also perturbed, but at least a little calmer, leaned over her. “Liliana,” he said. “This is very important. Did you _sell_ your soul, or did you _lease_ it?”

            “I don’t understand,” she murmured, but she could apparently tell from his tone of voice that he was deadly serious. “I…believe the contract said ‘lease’, although I could check.”

            Putting one hand over his face, Gideon took a long, deep breath, but before he could figure out where to begin, Jace breezed back into the room, holding an extremely thick volume he must have gotten out of the ship’s library, which he _slammed_ down onto the table so hard that Chandra, Liliana, and Gideon all jumped. He flipped it open and shoved it under Liliana’s nose. “This is the definition of a _capital lease_ ,” he said. “A  **capital lease**  is a  **lease**  in which the lessor only finances the  **leased**  asset, and all other rights of ownership transfer to the lessee. This results in the recordation of the asset as the lessee's property in its general ledger, as a fixed asset.”

            “Are you trying to tell me something, because whatever it is, I don’t understand it,” Liliana said crossly.

            “Jace—” Gideon tried, but Jace held up a finger and shook his head.

            “I shouldn’t even be surprised,” he sighed. “Liliana. Let’s say I’m a demon. I want a soul. The soul is an _asset_ that I acquire from you.”   

            “Yes! I know! I want it _back_!”

            “ _No_ ,” Jace said. “You really _don’t._ Because _you still own your soul_. That’s what a lease means. I acquire the asset from you—it goes into my books—but you are still the owner. You are the _lessor_ , and I am the _lessee_.”

            “So you get ownership, it says so right there!”

            “ _If I keep paying you_. Good god, Liliana, have you never heard someone say ‘I can’t believe he’s dead, he owed me money’?”

            She opened her mouth and then closed it again. “Ah—well—that is—”

            “There is a reason people generally do not want to kill their debtors. You _leased_ your soul. The demons keep it as long as they keep _paying_ you for it with your youth. If they are _dead_ —I’d like you to pay very close attention to this, because it is apparently difficult for you—if they’re dead, they can’t _pay_ you anymore.”

            Gideon winced slightly at the dawning horror on Liliana’s face. “You—you mean—”

            “Yes, to everyone’s utter astonishment, the demons weren’t expecting you to kill them because it doesn’t help you at all. It just means they’ll be forced to default on the contract because you can’t fulfill a payment on a contract _when you’re dead_.”

            “Gideon—” Liliana turned to him, wringing her hands, face pale, and he was forced to nod.

            “Standard contract magic,” he said. “The hieromancy is, um. Relatively straightforward.”

            “Oh,” Liliana said.

            “Yeah,” Jace agreed.

            She rallied slightly. “But—but I thought that I gave them my soul, and they gave me…youth.”

            Jace shrugged. “Not if it’s a lease,” he said. “And maybe this is just what I should have expected. You never did have a very good grasp on taking care of assets, did you?”

            Liliana’s hands were white-knuckled as she stared at the table. “What am I going to do?” she asked quietly.

            “That,” Jace said, with uncharacteristic viciousness, “is really not my problem anymore.” Trembling slightly, he turned and stalked away from the table, shaking his head and muttering under his breath.

            Gideon took another deep breath. “All right,” he said steadily. “Change of plans.”

            “Can you help?” Liliana burst out, hands twisting and twisting around one another. “Can you—you’re a hieromancer—I-I don’t—I don’t want to _die_ , Gideon.”

            “You’re going to need someone with a lot more skill than I have,” Gideon told her. “It’s not going to be easy—not without Jace’s help—” and he wasn’t going to ask Jace for help, there was definitely too much pain there, “—but there is someone I know who might have—an angle.”

            Liliana looked up, hoping dawning in her eyes. “Who?”

            “An expert contract negotiator. Teysa Karlov.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, please consider checking out my original work at mertiya-writes.com


End file.
